Two Decades Of Youth Employment And Education

As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today.

"The rates for youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET) represent the engagement in education and the job market of 15 to 24-year-olds in a single measure, which we can use to provide insights into how the experiences of young people in New Zealand have changed over the last 20 years," labour market manager Deb Brunning said.

"The NEET group includes, for example, young parents who are out of school and work or school leavers who haven't found employment."

The trend series NEET rate was relatively stable between 2004 and 2008. It then spiked following the global financial crisis, as youth joblessness rose. It peaked at 17.8 percent for young women and 12.6 percent for young men in the latter half of 2009.

After the NEET rate declined from 2012 to 2015, it has since remained relatively steady.

NEET rates for men and women have converged over the last two decades. This has come primarily from changes in NEET rates by sex for people in their early twenties, both because NEET rates are similar for teenagers regardless of sex and because the majority of youth NEET are in their early twenties.

Although young women aged 20 to 24 years have experienced higher NEET rates than young men of the same age since data began being collected in 2004, this gender gap has gradually narrowed.

Prior to 2009, young women were roughly twice as likely to be NEET compared with young men. Since then, higher NEET rates for young men and declining NEET rates for young women have significantly narrowed the gender gap.

"Over the last 20 years, we've seen a declining proportion of young women remaining outside the labour force while they look after children and families," Brunning said.

"Meanwhile, the NEET rate for young men hasn't significantly declined since the global financial crisis."

The number of women aged 20 to 24 years who were not in the labour force or education, and instead were engaged in caregiving activities, steadily declined from 16,300 in the March 2004 quarter to 9,900 in the March 2024 quarter, even as the total number of young women increased (survey series).